able posture would account not only for the strange compres sion of the skeletons, "the head pressed in such a way on the breast that the upper part of the shoulders was nearly on a horizontal line with the vertex of the head;" but also for the fracture of the golden masks, evidently the result of pressure on the edge and not the front.

But while we cannot acquiesce in Dr. Schliemann's theory respecting the identity of the occupants of the tombs of the Mycenean agora as proven, neither do we feel warranted in rejecting it as either impossible or improbable. It is certainly a remarkable coincidence that these tombs have been discovered inside of the walls in which the Gate of Lions is embedded, and just about the spot where a careful reading of Pausanias (never over clear in his descriptions of localities) might have led us to expect them. The circumstance that not a single body, but ordinarily from three to five bodies, were buried together in one tomb, need not be regarded as indicating a discrepancy between the discoveries and Pausanias' account. It may well be that the marshals or heralds of Agamemnon would be buried on either side of him, as Mr. Gladstone suggests, or the handmaidens of Electra be laid at her side. If it was to the Achæan mind somewhat indecorous to suppose that Penelope would descend alone from her apartments into the hall where the riotous suitors were drinking and listening to the lays of the minstrel, and so the poet makes her come

*

Οὐκ οἴη, ἅμα τῇγε καὶ ἀμφίπολοι δυ' ἔποντο, †

why might not a primitive age place in the tomb of the great, and at their sides, the faithful attendants of their mortal existence, with the expectation that the same service would be continued in another world? Under any circumstances, however, neither Pausanias nor his informants would be likely to make mention of more than the principal persons interred, passing by those of less consequence.

Neither does it appear to be of much importance as affecting the identification of the tombs proposed by Dr. Schliemann, that the discovery of a sixth tomb is reported since the five described in this work. It is said to be situated on the western edge of the agora, (though the plan of the agora offers *Preface, p. xxxi. "Odyssey," i, p. 331.

but scanty room for an additional tomb there,) and to be from its position the last made. Of the two skeletons found in it by Mr. Stamatakes, Superintendent of Antiquities, under whose supervision the excavation was made, one wore a gold mask, and "a beautiful little gold cup, quite modern in its make," was also obtained. The conclusion at which the correspondent of the "London Times" jumps, namely, that, inasmuch as the sixth tomb is plainly of the same age as the five previously discovered, the theory that these are the tombs assigned by Pausanias to Agamemnon and his companions must be brushed aside as untenable-this conclusion, we say, is rash, and indeed absurd. As we have seen, it is not clear but that the account of Pausanias calls for six, and not merely five, sepulchers. Besides which there is nothing in that account to show that it was, or was intended to be, exhaustive in its enumeration.

Dismissing this theory as one which we have not the materials either for definitely proving or decidedly refuting, we must say in conclusion that we rise from the. perusal of Dr. Schliemann's sumptuous volume on Mycena with a very profound sense of the importance and scientific value of the magnificent results of his persevering efforts. Since the unearthing of Pompeii and Herculaneum no explorations have so enlarged our knowledge of classical archeology as these of Dr. Schliemann at Troy and Mycena. Such merited success on

two fields has rarely befallen one man. While, therefore, the discoveries at Mycenae have, perhaps, raised more questions than they have answered, and while the reconciliation between the civilization depicted by Homer and that here disclosed cannot yet be said to be fully made out, we feel that the world has gained much by the liberal and intelligent expenditure of time and money on the part of the enthusiastic German whom we, too, are proud to recognize under his favorite designation of "Citizen of the United States of America."

ART. IV. - PLAGIARISM AND THE LAW OF

QUOTATION.

[SECOND PAPER.]

Convey, the wise it call: Steal? foh! a fico [fig] for the phrase ! "—Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I, Scene 3.

SHERIDAN, who was born in 1751 and died in 1816, published a comedy, entitled "The Critic," in which we find the following: "Steal? to be sure they may, and, egad, serve your best thoughts as gypsies do stolen children-disfigure them to make 'em pass for their own." The priority of this just rebuke belongs, however, to Churchill, Sheridan's predecessor by some twenty years. Thus Churchill :—

"Who to patch up his fame, or fill his purse,

Still pilfers wretched palms, and makes them worse;
Like gypsies, lest the stolen brat be known,
Defacing first, then claiming for his own."

To those who steal after this fashion we commend the words of Milton: "For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plagiare." Of such Samuel Butler said: "A literary plagiarist is like an Italian thief, who never robs but he murders to prevent discovery."

*

Some of our most distinguished novelists and poets, and even divines, seem to have a bad notoriety in this department of literary malpractice.† Charles Reade, it is said, stands upon the very apex of the pedestal of infamy in this regard. "Never Too Late to Mend" is culled from parliamentary blue books. "White Lies" is charged with being a double plagiarism from two French authors. It is also alleged that "Clouds and Sunshine" is from "Claudie," by George Sand. His "Wandering

*Iconoclast.

"Taxation no

In 1775 Dr. Samuel Johnson published his famous pamphlet on Tyranny," etc. "No sooner," says Wesley's last biographer, "was it issued than, with or without leave, Wesley abridged it, and, without the least reference to its origin, published it as his own, in a quarto sheet of four pages, with the title, 'A Calm Address to our American Colonies. By Rev. Mr. John Wesley, M.A. Price, one penny.' This was an injudicious and unwarrantable act, except on the supposition that there was some secret understanding between him and Johnson, and even then the thing had too much the aspect of plagiarism to be wise."-TYERMANN, vol. iii, p. 186.

Heir" we read in an old number of the "Gentleman's Magazine," and was in print, we imagine, before Mr. Reade was born. Many remember the immense sensation produced by the first appearance of "Griffith Gaunt." It was universally regarded as the masterpiece of its gifted author. It was extolled for its "freshness," its "frankness," and its "originality." It was spoken of as "delicious," as showing the author's แ rare gift of creating!" Yet this model, so wonderful in its "originality," is charged with being a literary larceny, a double plagiary of the most barefaced kind.

A writer in "Frazer's Magazine" has shown, by a most formidable array of parallel passages, from "Tristram Shandy" on the one side and "The Caxtons" on the other, that Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton has scarcely a right to regard the latter work as his own at all. In view of the rank, of Sir Edward, and his literary celebrity, the writer asks, "If these things are done in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" and as though the Scriptures furnished him with the most forcible material for rebuke, he concludes by declaring himself in the dilemma of the patriarch-" The words are the words of Sterne, but the voice is the voice of Bulwer."*

The most distinguished offenders against the laws of literary honesty have been men for whom no possible excuse can be framed. Disraeli once, with cutting satire, advised Sir Robert Peel to "stick to quotation," adducing as the reason that "he never quoted any passage that had not previously received the meed of parliamentary approbation." How strange that a satirist so subtle as Disraeli, with a pen of his own so facile and linked to such illimitable thought, should stoop so low that, when called upon for an eulogium of the Iron Duke, he should steal it ready-made from the pen of Thiers! If this had been the only theft, we might have supposed that he was the victim of the common carelessness which sometimes intends to

"A great poet may really borrow; he may even condescend to an obligation at the hands of an equal or inferior; but he forfeits his title if he borrows more than the amount of his own possession. The nightingale himself takes somewhat of his song from birds less glorified; and the lark, having beaten with her wings the very gate of heaven, cools her breast among the grass. The lowlier of intellect may lay out a table in their field, at which table the highest one sometimes may be disposed to partake: want does not compel them. Imitation, as we call it, is often weakness, but it likewise is often sympathy."-LANDON.

give "honor to whom honor is due," but fails. In this case we fear it was a habit. A paper, from whose statements it were idle to appeal, says: "The right honorable gentleman has paid us the high compliment of printing as his own some. striking reflections of a celebrated historian which originally appeared in this journal." The peroration of his speech on the third reading of the Corn Bill is a mere paraphrase of the concluding paragraph of Mr. Urquhart's "Diplomatic Transactions in Central Asia."

But few men have been supposed to be more original than Lord Brougham, yet Lord Melbourne says of one of his labored eulogiums on the virtue of justice, that it "was a most brilliant passage; but he thought he had heard some of it before. No doubt these were fine expressions, but they put him in mind, however, of Sheridan's celebrated eulogium on the liberty of the press; but they were by no means the worse for that." This criticism of Melbourne's is adduced by a writer in the "Examiner " as an illustration of the wit of the critic. "It is the nonchalant, easy tilt of the hilt dropping the man run through the body off the sword." A coarse antagonist would have pinned him; Lord Melbourne let him fall.

If we go a few steps higher upon the ladder of literary faine, it is only to breathe an air more heavily laden with the dust of plagiarism than that which irritated our literary nostrils on the lower rounds.

It was the opinion of Sir Walter Scott that Sterne owed much of his brilliancy to his petty pilferings from birds of much inferior feather. An acute critic, however, has shown that the pretended parallel passages are few in number, and many of them only elaborated hints. It is impossible to deny, however, that Sterne drew his learning from Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," and not from the originals, and there are pages of his works belonging to other authors. The most remarkable theft is the complaint against copyists. It is singular that he should plagiarize an invective against plagiarism. An apologist has said: "The appropriation of three or four paragraphs without acknowledgment may detract from his candor, but not from his genius." We will admit his genius, but condemn his taste. It argues a sad perversion of genius that he should imitate the defects of Rabelais.